Some Observations About OnlyFans

I first began poking around OnlyFans (and can't claim to have done much more than that) because I thought it would be a good way to get to know sex workers and nude models. These are two kinds of people that I want to know, but doing so in person has seemed improbable to me. OnlyFans therefore looked like it might be a good way to connect, a thought which makes superficial sense if you understand how the website is structured.

OnlyFans (OF for short) is set up a lot like a social media website with solid monetization options. This contrasts with something like an impersonal video site or store front. Like other forms of social media, OF provides you a feed of creators you've subscribed to and a messaging system. Creators can set their subscription fee to zero to create a free account, or they can set a monthly fee for access, much like any subscription service. In many ways, its feature set is similar to Patreon, a website I'm already quite familiar with. This social-media-like structure gives it a personal feeling, and the marketing I've seen around OF accounts seems to me to emphasize this.

However, the reason I said it made superficial sense to think OF would be a good way to connect is due to an inbuilt problem that I'm familiar with from livestreams on Twitch, and it's the same reason educators want small classroom sizes: audience/entertainer (or student/teacher) ratios. This problem is apparent even from the few accounts I've interacted with.

To explain how these ratios work and create a problem, let's examine how they look with livestreaming. One of the big appeals that livestreaming has over prerecorded content is the chat feature. This feature enables viewers to interact not only with each other, but with the streamer(s) as well. There's something really special about being able to directly interact with the person you're watching and have them respond to you in near-real time. Speaking as someone who sometimes streams, it's also special to have people interacting with you over something you enjoy. It's a great way to build connections, at least of a sort. However, there's a problem: the more popular a streamer gets, the busier their chat becomes, and the harder it is for them to meaningfully interact with it.

This problem creates a kind of paradox. The feature that makes livestreaming great (the audience being able to interact with the streamer) falls apart the more successful (a bigger audience) the streamer becomes simply because human beings are not infinite, and we can't pay attention to everything. Chats for popular channels move so quickly they become unusable, reduced to an endless cascade of messages.

This same paradox exists in the heart of OnlyFans. The more popular a creator is on that website, the more people vie for their finite attention, and the promise of the site—that of fans being able to interact with the person of whom they are a fan—falls apart.

There are various ways to try and address this issue, but none of them are good solutions provided the goal is for the fan to interact with the creator. The most straightforward solution, and one that's actually built into the platform, is for creators to only really pay attention to the fans that give them the most money, either by buying content or via tips (you can tip specific posts or just send a creator a tip through OF's private messaging system; many creators have a tip shop to encourage this for custom interactions or content). This, of course, means that those who either won't or can't spend much money on a creator don't get to interact with them. Another solution is for the creator to hire one of the agencies that'll handle messages for them, but of course, that's not really interacting with the creator. Creators can also use chat bots to handle their messages, but that has the same problem.

Fundamentally, OF only "works properly" for small creators, but of course, things are more nuanced than this, which brings me to the next major issue: audience objectification.

To be blunt, I have never felt more objectified in my life than I have as a supposed "fan" on OnlyFans, where at times I've felt treated as if all I am is an erect wallet just waiting to ejaculate money. Often, the private chat functions as little more than a salesman using generic messages meant to appeal to some kind of concept of male sexuality that is mostly not mine. In short, the most common sales tactic is to use lust to try and sell content. This does not appeal to me, though the idea that the site would allow for more personal interactions likely makes these negative experiences leave an even worse taste in my mouth as a result.

The thing is, audience objectification like this (to at least some degree) is inevitable given the constraints previously mentioned. Simply put, creators cannot give all fans individual attention beyond a certain point, which means mass-messaging their subscribers. This is the only reasonable and efficient way for them to conduct their business, but it also means they can't easily cater to individual subscribers.

Again, for creators beyond a certain size, I find it unlikely that OF is more than functionally a storefront with extra steps that enables them to connect more directly with their spendiest fans. The realities of finite humanness prevent it from being anything else, at least in its present state. The only reasonable alternative I can think of is for OnlyFans to enable creators to specify a limited number of subscriber slots, most likely with an auction system for people to fill them each month. Of course, that only works if creators limit themselves to a number of slots that they can actually manage.

This core system problem has definitely negatively impacted my experience with OnlyFans, but another problem is simply that I'm not the general target audience, so far as I can tell. I think a comparison will help explain what I mean in more detail.

Now, I don't think pornography is inherently harmful or sinful in much the same way that I don't think alcohol is inherently harmful or sinful. I believe both can be enjoyed responsibly. (There is a bit of an oversimplification of my viewpoint here, and I'd love to go into the details and nuance, but that'll have to wait for another time.) I also believe both can lead to disaster if consumed the wrong way, and both can lead to broken relationships, regret, misery, and so forth.

It seems to me that a lot of online porn is sold in a manner similar to a bar that's trying to get patrons drunk, but I'm not looking to get drunk. I want to enjoy a fine craft brew while chatting with the brewer about their process and what thought went into making it. I want to enjoy the company of an artisan. This whole thing is making me feel like I'm describing myself as the most obnoxious kind of snob...

As I said at the beginning, I initially had interest in OnlyFans because I hoped it'd be a way for me to connect with the kinds of people I want to get to know. Now that I've poked at it a little bit, I can see that there are familiar systemic issues that make that sort of connection unlikely, though not impossible. It also doesn't help that any relationship founded on monetary exchange (or the hope thereof) has an added barrier to authentic connection.

As I've tried to emphasize, I realize that my perspective on OnlyFans is overall quite limited, so I am interested in hearing other's perspectives and experiences with the site, especially of those who are OnlyFans creators. If that happens to be you and you're willing to share with me, you can email me at sientir at gmail. I'll keep any such emails confidential.

Ultimately what I want is to interact with pornographers and nude models as what we all are: human beings.

Thank you for reading.

PS: I want to state clearly that I am 100% against any sort of persecution or harassment of sex workers, nude models, and others who get caught up in their wake. I wrote this to share my perspective, which is one among many, and I do not want one of the better platforms for sex workers to be taken away from them. I am especially frustrated by the way my fellow Christians have demonized these people whom Jesus loves and the way Christians have attempted to destroy sex workers (etc.) by attacking their ability to engage with the financial system and otherwise conduct their businesses. I may not always like or approve of what sex workers do or how they do it, but I nevertheless believe they should be treated with dignity and respect, and I am for decriminalizing their work.